Wednesday, 6/10

I’ve tried to start thinking in French again.

Three months (give or take a few days) from today, assuming all kinds of things fall into place and assuming all kinds of restrictions are lifted (fingers crossed) we'll be taking off on our latest European trip, which has reminded me that I need to brush up on my French language skills. Those of you who read this on a regular basis know that, over the last ten or so I’ve managed to teach myself enough of the language to get by, thanks to Rosetta Stone and my handy dandy “French is Easy; Don't be a Coward” book (a book, as they note, geared for seventh graders, but good for adults, too). While I’m nowhere near fluent in being able to speak or listen to the language with someone who grew up speaking and listening to it, I’m pretty good at reading it, and I can hold my own in a two or three sentence conversation with a native French speaker.

As I’ve found every time I’ve been in Europe, as long as you make the effort to speak the language in whichever country you’re visiting, people will meet you halfway. After all, students in Europe learn several different languages, and most choose English as one of them. So between my self-taught French and their school-taught English, Loraine and I have managed to got around France & Belgium with no problem whatsoever. In fact, the only problem is in the few months before we leave, when I realize I’ve forgotten half of what I learned before the previous trip, and need to brush up.

Which is why I’m trying to think in French these days.

And even the phrase “thinking in French” is misleading. After all, it’s not like I’m thinking about what I’m typing in this blog in French; like I said, I’m not fluent enough in the language to do that (some people, of course, would say that I’m not fluent enough in English to write a blog, either, but that’s a conversation for another day). When I say I’m “thinking in French”, I do it in small ways. When someone asks me a question, I’ll answer it verbally in English, but mentally in French. My head will be filled with “ouis” and “nons” and “mercis” and “je nais sais pas”. It seems to work for me, although the checkout lady at the grocery store last weekend gave me a funny look when I answered “papier, s’il vous plait” when asked if I preferred paper or plastic.

Oops. My bad.

So with any luck, by the time early September rolls and (big if here) if we're allowed to roll through France I’ll be ready with enough French at my disposal to let us do whatever we need to do whenever we want to do it. It’s worked before, and hopefully, it’ll work again.

As always, wish me luck!!

(jim@wmqt.com)